Wow, thanks everyone for the wonderful reviews! I didn't have enough time to be able to reply to most of them this time around, but rest assured, I read every word. You guys have no idea how much I appreciate it, especially for those of you who took the time to write long reviews. I'm so glad that everyone's enjoying the story so far!
As always, to keep things short, extended notes/comments/updates on the story from me are on my profile.
Enjoy!
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Kagome fell down clumsily on the ground as the blond-haired boy came crashing down on her. Her heart was pounding from exerting herself on the purification. The boy's head laid limply face-down on her shoulder. She tried to push the teenager off her, but found that her arms wouldn't cooperate.
Gods, purifying that evil tattoo thing had taken a lot out of her. She was exhausted. Kagome frowned. Why was some teenager walking around with such dark magic on his arm? And the tattoo had been more than a little creepy, even for the skulls and chains that were considered 'cool' by some of her peers. She had gotten a quick glimpse of it before she had purified the hell out of the guy – a skull with a curing snake slithering out of its mouth, posed to strike.
In retrospect, she thought, it was good that he had casted the 'Notice-Me-Not' spell, even if he had bad intentions. Nobody had noticed when she had burned out the darkness in his arm.
Kagome allowed herself to feel a little self-satisfied for a moment, since the blond-haired boy had gotten what he deserved for attempting to assault her. Then, she struggled to push the offending boy off her.
"Gods, this guy is heavy," she grumbled to herself.
####
Draco groaned as his eyes slid open. It felt like a ton of bricks had hit him. Strangely, when he looked around, it was not a green and cream white bedroom that greeted him, but an alley with a couple of mouldering boxes. He was propped up against a brick wall, sitting on the ground. His cloak was covering his body.
Then, it all came back. An Asian girl, with clear blue eyes, snapping back at him after a collision. Overwhelming anger, as he pushed her hard into the brick alley wall. A surprising amount of teeth-grinding pain as she delivered a kick, and then more pain, but of the paralyzing, white-hot variety as fingers dug into his arm.
Draco bolted up straight. He had apparently passed out from the pain. This Mudblood had somehow beaten him! A mere girl, with magic through her bare hands!
The Dark Lord would be furious. The pressure she had applied on the Dark Mark would most certainly be interpreted as a call to both the Dark Lord and the rest of the Death Eaters. Hands shaking, Draco pushed up the sleeve on his arm, expecting the Dark Mark to be pulsing in rage at the contact with magic. They would kill him for such a transgression, for a new member like him presuming to call the rest of them.
Instead, there was nothing on his arm but bare skin. For several moments, Draco could not quite comprehend what had happened.
He only blinked, not quite understanding.
Nothing was there. No sinister snake and skull marred his arm.
His fingers brushed over the unharmed pale skin, and felt no inflamed tattoo. Nothing. If it had been a simple glamour, he would have felt the raised mark beneath the appearance.
For one of the first times in his life, Draco Malfoy was shocked speechless.
The Dark Mark was permanent. It was well known that someone who took the mark could never get rid of it. The dark magic was too strong, and became too tightly intertwined with one's own magic. Trying to erase the mark from a body basically amounted to amputation of the arm.
Being a Death Eater was for life. A former Death Eater was a dead Death Eater.
And yet, here he sat, with an unblemished forearm, free of the Dark Mark. Draco stared at his arm numbly, not quite believing the sight before him.
He was free.
He was free.
He was free.
It was after several minutes before Draco finally noticed something sitting on the ground in front of him. A package, wrapped in brown paper and a note stuck to the top of it.
I'm sorry about the cloak.
It was unsigned, but Draco could tell it was from that girl. He unfolded the material, and found a plain green cloak. Far inferior in quality to his favorite emerald cloak that she had ripped – but, for some reason, Draco couldn't have care less.
A feeling of hope welled up in Draco's throat. Somehow, a random girl whom he had insulted and cornered had erased his Dark Mark completely. He fervently hoped this was not all just a dream.
This was his second chance.
No longer a slave. The Dark Lord whispered promises of power, but Draco had seen what the Death Eaters had become. Men such as his father, once powerful and prideful, becoming sniveling cowards, kneeling before Dark Lord like scared, obedient slaves.
It's not too late. I can turn back, change, and be something else. My father's fate shall not be mine.
Draco had plans to make, to conceal the disappearance of the mark from other Death Eaters, his family, and the Dark Lord. He had to change, to stop himself from becoming something he now knew he would regret. It would be a hard summer, and he would have to make difficult decisions.
But, right now, all Draco could feel was euphoria. Free.
Draco tipped his head back, and smiled toward the sky, breathing in and out. Then, pulling the green cloak over him, he left the alley.
From across the street, a fox demon smiled to the girl setting next to him.
####
"Well, that went well," Shippo mused, as he lazily ate another spoonful of ice cream, "Did you see his smile?"
"Yup," Kagome said, letting out a sigh of relief. Good. Whatever it was that she had purified out of him had not been wanted.
The pair were at the ice cream parlor, across from where Kagome had been assaulted by the teenager. They had been watching him closely, to see how he would react. The blond boy's expression went through a range of emotions: first confusion, then anger, shock, and finally, a faintly hopeful smile.
After Kagome had propped Draco leaning against the wall, she had quickly fetched Shippo. At first, the fox demon had only muttered angrily about sending the blond-haired ponce to something called 'Azkaban', but eventually, after some argument, he had acquiesced to letting the boy go. After all, Kagome argued, the boy had not seemed to be in the right mind, and teenagers made mistakes. And Shippo only knew too well how people could be possessed or influenced by magic, since it had happened on many an occasion in the feudal era.
Shippo had known that the tattoo was something called a 'Dark Mark', and those who were on the so-called 'Dark Lord's' side all sported the mark on their arm. The symbol would also appear over places where Death Eaters had attacked. Kagome had shivered at this tidbit of information. Attacked – like the villages Naraku had slaughtered and the scared people he had took hostage.
It scared her – she had thought that sort of violence and terror was long gone from the modern world, but according to the headmaster, war would erupt in only a matter of time.
How did that boy become a Death Eater? she thought. He had looked young – well, probably the same age I am now, Kagome corrected herself.
"Are you sure you want to go to Hogwarts?" Shippo asked worriedly, "I'm concerned with this whole Dark Lord thing. It's not to late to back out." Kagome pursed her lips, thinking. The two were silent as both contemplated the words.
"I want to learn magic," Kagome finally said, "And I'm already here. It'll do me some good to get away from home and make a clean break with what's in the past. I've made my choice, and I'm sticking to it."
Shippo nodded, accepting her decision. He wasn't at all offended by how Kagome wanted to make a clean break with the past that he had been apart of – the fox demon understood that she had been literally 'living in the past', and now, five hundred years later, it would be foolish of her to cling onto those memories without moving forward in her own life.
"Have you thought about how the you somehow became younger?" Shippo asked, pushing back his caramel-colored bangs. He had changed his disguise, from that of a Japanese man with long black hair and brown eyes which he had worn in Japan, to that of one more similar to his natural looks. Kagome preferred this orange-haired, green-eyed Shippo. It was basically how he looked naturally, toned down to human level, without the fur, tails, and claws.
"Yes, of course. At the time, I knew I would probably be sent back to the future, but I had no idea that four years of my life would be erased so completely. It's all so strange. I felt like I had gone crazy. Like I had woken up and found out that everything was just a dream," Kagome said with a sad smile.
"Do you have any idea why the jewel would send you back like this? What was the wish you made on it?"
The jewel must have had a purpose, to send her back to this time, Shippo mused.
"I wished for everyone to be happy. I wanted the Shikon Jewel to undo all the pain it had caused," Kagome said softly.
Shippo blinked. It was said that only a pure, unselfish wish would cause the Shikon Jewel to disappear. Her wish could have easily been selfish, without the right intent.
She had wished for their happiness, which in her own heart, she must have known would be at the cost of her own. The implications were large. Her wish could've caused Inuyasha and Kikyo to stay together and love each other. Using the word 'undo' could have very well erased all of their memories of her and changed the past by simply taking Naraku out of the equation.
And she must've known this, for the wish to have succeeded. Kagome had been prepared to be forgotten and gone. She, in her mind, had not included herself in the wish for happiness. Shippo's eyes shone in admiration.
"I missed you and everyone else so much," Kagome continued, "But, it's going to be nice to go through these years with my family, and I'll know that they don't remember how much they worried the first time through. I'll be going to Hogwarts, but at least I'll be able to contact them. I can already tell I'll love magic."
Perhaps, because of Kagome's unselfish intent, the jewel had included her own happiness in the equation too.
####
In a fading, yellow-papered room, a boy sat under a dim light, whispering words into the air. He appeared to be staring intensely at the air around him, his voice chanting a spell over and over. Objects in the room quivered and trembled, and sometimes, a light mist appeared in front of the boy. But it appeared not to be what he was aiming for, as he let out a frustrated sigh.
Harry ran his hands through his messy black hair in exasperation. The past couple days had been rather humbling. At first, he had been elated by his early success at wandless magic – but now, it was looking as though it might have all been beginner's luck. Harry had been working on the Shield Charm for three days, and he hadn't achieved anything close to a success.
Instead of attempting the color changing spell the book had suggested next, Harry had decided to work on the Shield Charm. He had reasoned that color changing spells weren't going to help at all in a duel with Voldemort, while Protego could save his life – and therefore, took priority. He had known it would be difficult, and had been prepared.
Of course, Harry had considered the fact that he was deviating from the book, but the color-changing spell was taught around the same time as the Shield Charm, and the two spells were roughly of equal difficulty. Both were taught early on in fifth year, and while Harry had learned the Shield Charm in preparation for Triwizard Tournament last year, he had never casted the color-changing spell.
The book instructions had emphasized 'feeling the magic rush through the body as one casted the spell with a wand', and Harry couldn't very well do that, with the law against underaged usage of magic. He reasoned that a spell that he knew how to cast with a wand would be easier wandlessly than a spell he had never casted before.
However, none of his well-thought out plan was working out. For the fiftieth time that day, Harry pushed his hands out in front of him, and said quite loudly, "Protego!" A tremor seemed to shake the room, and while couple of quills fell off his desk and Hedwig fluttered her wings nervously, nothing else happened.
Disgruntled, Harry stomped to his desk. There was only another hour until the Dursleys would arrive back. It was much harder to attempt wandless magic when they were home – while he had been practicing levitation a day ago, Petunia had become suspicious when the large thumps of falling textbooks could be heard downstairs. She had marched up to his room and wretched the door open, only to find Harry reading.
He had just managed to shove all his school textbooks under the bed (Petunia would have a fit if she thought he was learning magic in the house), and had been nonchalantly pretending to read the only non-magical book in the room – an old dictionary – when the door flew open.
Her eyes had swept suspiciously across the room, while Harry told some half-baked story about tripping and stubbing his toe on the desk. Thankfully, she accepted his words with a disapproving frown and a shrill reproach not to 'damage the floor with his freakish clumsiness'. Since then, he had been much more careful when the Dursleys were at home, which, unfortunately, was the majority of the week.
Harry had decided to cautiously practice wandless spells that he had already learned when the Dursleys were home. So far, that only included the levitation spell. Forays into new spells would only occur when they left the house, or, if he felt particularly daring, while his relatives were all on the ground floor of the house. It was just too risky otherwise.
Just another hour. Harry gritted his teeth. The past few hours had not resulted in anything, and he could not afford to waste the precious time.
Sighing, Harry flipped open Concepts Behind Magic open to the instructions for a wandless color-changing charm. Perhaps he was getting ahead of himself. The instructions for the shield charm had been nearly twenty spells after the levitation spell, so, perhaps, the ordering of the spells taught in the book had not been without reason.
The steps for the Color Changing Spell were nearly identical to those of the levitation spell, except with instructions at the end on how to change the object to a specific color. Feeling rather defeated, Harry decided to go along with the book, and grabbed a piece of parchment to experiment on.
He stared at the parchment, memorizing it's texture, color, and the way it lay on the desk with curling ends. Harry repeated the spell over and over in a low voice, willing it to become a blue color.
Twenty minutes later, Harry looked at the piece of parchment in surprise. The corners had turned a light blue.
That was quicker than I had expected.
After all that effort with the shield charm, which he had been sure of, Harry had expected the spell to take at least an hour's worth of practice. He took the sheet of parchment, examining it. Yes, the ends were definitely a shade of sky blue. Now he just had to turn the rest of the paper that color.
But, as Harry let go of the parchment to try again, something astonished him. As his fingertips let go of the parchment, blue spots had appeared, spreading as though it was watercolor paint. Fascinated, Harry touched his fingers to the parchment again, watching as the color spread forth from his hands. A swipe of his hands left a trails of blue, which slowly filled in the space left in between.
A grin lit up his features. Harry took his quill in hand, watching as it slowly turned a sunny yellow.
By midnight, much of his room resembled a kaleidoscope.
####
A bell tinkled faintly as Kagome and Shippo entered the dusty wand shop. Inside, there were shelves reaching up to the ceiling, filled with narrow boxes. An old man with pale eyes and wild white hair entered. His forehead was lined with wrinkles, and both his mustache and furrowed eyebrows matched the white of his hair.
"Hello, it seems I haven't met either of you before. I am Ollivander. Who is in need of a wand?" Shippo nodded towards Kagome. The old man inquired her name, and then set to work. Quickly, a measuring tape started to flick around her, measuring her wrist and arm. She wondered how the man knew the measurements when he had not even glanced at the measuring tape, but before she could ask, he had selected a wand for her to try.
"Willow wood and unicorn tail hair. Very springy. Hmm." She reached out to take the wand, but then Mr. Ollivander hesitated, and looked at her inquisitively, noticing her age.
"Did you break your last wand?" He asked, frowning severely at the thought.
"No, I've never had a wand before," Kagome said hurriedly.
"This is your our first wand?" he said, surprised.
"Yes," Kagome said, somewhat lamely. She was getting embarrassed – it was starting to become quite evident just how much she would stick out in the Wizarding World by entering it late. Shippo gave her an encouraging grin of support.
"Must be a late-bloomer... rare..." He muttered, turning back around to look at the shelves.
"Eight inches, oak wood and dragon heartstring. Stout and strong," Mr. Ollivander said, finally handing her a wand. Kagome hesitantly gave it a swish, and jumped as a wooden stool in the corner splintered into pieces onto the floor.
"I'm so sorry!" she apologized, eyes wide. Shippo chuckled and pulled out his wand, and with a 'Reparo', the stool was back into one piece.
"It's quite alright," the white-haired wizard murmured, scanning the shelves.
"Ten inches, hazel and phoenix feather. Quick and light," the old man said, placing another wand into her hands. But before she could even give it a wave, he had plucked it out of her fingertips.
"No, no, not quite right... Try this one. Holly and dragon heartstring, nine and a half inches. Powerful, especially for charms." The explosion that followed resembled fireworks gone wrong. After Shippo managed to vanish all the soot, Kagome swished some more wands.
She was beginning to feel quite discouraged. Some wands had done nothing, others had cracked shelves and tipped over piles of boxes of wands, and still others made loud explosions. The miko was starting to flinch every time she took a wand in her hand.
Mr. Ollivander, however, was now quite fidgety, and almost seemed excited.
"Rosewood and the hair from the mane of a unicorn. Give it a swish," he said impatiently, pushing the wand into her hands. After another deafening crack, and a splintered door that was quickly fixed, Mr. Ollivander quickly took back the wand, and then disappeared into the back of the store.
Kagome sighed. That had been probably the thirtieth wand she had tried.
"What if none of the wands match me, Shippo?"
"Now, don't worry about that. I'm sure we'll find one that works for you. Your wand will be unique, just like you," he said comfortingly.
"How long did it take to find your wand?"
"Well, mine was custom-made, because – well, you know. I'm a bit different in the magical regard," Shippo said, smiling. And Kagome did know. It made sense, really. Demons were different from humans, and of course they would need different wands.
"I didn't know that at first though," the fox-demon said, "So I went to two different wand shops, and I think I drove both of the owners crazy. Every wand made an little explosion when I touched it. One wand-maker even chased me out of the store!" Kagome laughed at the thought.
Mr. Ollivander entered back into the room with ten or eleven boxes in his arms. He placed the bundle of boxes onto his desk, and looked at Kagome.
"Now, Miss Higurashi, since you are such a tricky customer, I have here some older wands. These are wands that were made by my father, grandfather, great-grandfather and further. Many of these are very different from what I sell regularly. No one has yet to claim them, but perhaps, one will suit you." With that, the old man opened the first box. His eyes shone with intense interest as he held up the wand.
"Ten and a quarter inch. Bloodwood and dryad hair. Crafted by the former Ollivander. Flexible. Give it a go," the old man said, pale eyes watching in anticipation. There was a rustle of air, but nothing more. Kagome disappointingly handed the shiny red wood wand back to the old wizard. Perhaps she wasn't cut out to be a witch. The wand-maker blinked, his fingers quivering with excitement as he searched among the boxes for another wand to try.
"Eleven inches, one of my great-great-grandfather's. Cherrywood, and dragon tooth. Slender, and quite powerful." Kagome took the wand into her hands apprehensively, and was taken aback at the warmth that spread into her arms.
A flurry of pink sparks flew from the tip of the wand, and seemed to light up the dreary wand shop. The light that was emitted was reminiscent of her purifying power. Shippo clapped. Ollivander gave a grin that seemed rather out of place on his face.
"Congratulations! Looks like that's your wand!" Shippo said. Kagome smiled, elated that a wand had finally worked.
Mr. Ollivander nodded. His eyes were wide.
"Odd combination, even back then. Very rare, dragon tooth, that is. Quite difficult to meld..." the man muttered to himself.
"How much?" Shippo asked, interrupting his murmurs. They had been at the shop nearly an hour now, and they were suppose to meet Dumbledore soon.
"Ah, seven galleons." Kagome dug out the large gold coins and paid. Kagome was gathering her belongings when the wand-maker cleared his throat.
"Miss Higurashi, the wand chooses the witch or wizard. Your wand has waited quite a some time... I expect great things out of you."
Kagome nodded at his words, and left quickly with Shippo. Mr. Ollivander's piercing eyes had been starting to become creepy.
####
Dumbledore arrived at the Leaky Cauldron fifteen minutes past five. The pub was starting to get busy. A couple acquaintances shouted hellos to the old wizard, and he returned them.
The colorfully-dressed old wizard found Kagome and Shippo sitting at a table with butterbeers. Both were laughing, apparently at a story Shippo had told.
"Hello there," Dumbledore said merrily, "I apologize for being late; a meeting ran on longer than I thought it would."
"Oh no, that's quite fine," Shippo replied, "I don't think we even noticed!"
"Were you able to cast the translation spell?" Dumbledore inquired.
"Yes, he did. It works perfectly. Thank you so much," Kagome said grinning, in English.
"Wonderful," Dumbledore said aloud. Inwardly, he felt a bit of surprise. He had not expected this. A long term, all-encompassing spell like that required quite a bit of magical power, which was why it was not used commonly. This Shippo Isaka had to be quite powerful. He looked with renewed interest at the demon.
"You were able to obtain all your supplies?" the headmaster asked.
"Yes, everything went well," Kagome responded. The miko picked up all her belongings, which Shippo had conveniently shrunken for her to fit into her suitcase, with the exception of Tomomi, who had returned to her birdcage. She said goodbye to Shippo, gave him a hug, and made him promise to write often and to visit her.
Soon, Kagome was experiencing the odd, unpleasant sensation of Side-Along Apparition. Kagome gasped as soon as the squeezing sensation was gone. She opened her eyes to see an unexpected scene. They arrived at a the edge of a forest, with no house in sight.
"Are we suppose to be here?" Kagome asked warily. There was no one around, just her and the powerful old wizard. Surely, the house was not a treehouse or something like that?
"I wanted to explain a couple things to you before we arrive at the house. As I said before, it's an extremely safe house – Unplottable, with many wards and charms. However, there are some things I need to tell you about that I would prefer not to be heard by eavesdroppers at the Leaky Cauldron," the Headmaster explained. Kagome nodded.
"Right, as I explained to you before, Great Britain is in midst of a conflict with a Dark Lord," he said.
"Yes," Kagome said slowly, not seeing where this was going.
"Unfortunately, our government, the Ministry of Magic, does not recognize the threat. And so, there is a resistance force, the headquarters of which you will be staying at. We are not recognized by the government, which many suspect to be infiltrated with spies."
"Ah," Kagome said softly.
"Now, there is a family living at the home for security concerns. You will be staying with them – they are quite agreeable. I need your word that you will not betray the location or any information you have acquired there. Normally, an Unbreakable Vow would be used, however, I hesitate since you have no magical training. For now, a promise will suffice."
"Yes, of course. I won't tell anyone a thing," she said, wondering what an Unbreakable Vow was.
"Good! Well, that's all settled," the headmaster said, beaming. He took out a piece of paper from her pocket and handed it to her.
"Read this and memorize it," said the old wizard. The miko was confused, but did as she was told.
The headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London.
As soon as she was finished, the headmaster took back the piece of paper and tapped it with his wand. She watched as the paper curled up in flames.
The Headmaster casted another spell, that turned both of them invisible. It felt much like cold water was dripping down her back. Kagome looked at wonder at her hand. She could sort of see it since she knew it was there, but it seemed to blend into the background.
"Alright, journey on!" Dumbledore said, holding out his faintly outlined arm for her to take. As soon as she touched it, there was another dizzying, unpleasant sensation. They appeared in front of a row of grimy English houses. They looked worn down, with litter on their steps.
Kagome saw a number eleven and a number thirteen, but there was nothing where number twelve should have been. She looked around, confused, until the headmaster said quietly, "Think of what you read."
As soon as the words written on the parchment went through her mind, something started to emerge from between number eleven and thirteen. It pushed apart the houses on either side, as if both had been squeezed to make room in the middle. The tenants in the houses did not seem to notice – there were no screams of walls being moved, nothing. Kagome felt mouth drop slightly in astonishment, as an entire house emerged, complete with a door, windows, and steps.
"Well, come on now," Dumbledore said merrily. Kagome nodded dumbly as she followed him up the stone steps. The black paint on the door was starting to peel off. There was no handle or doorknob, only a tarnished silver door knocker in the form of a snake. Instead of turning the doorknob or knocking, the headmaster tapped his wand once on the door. A series of loud clicks followed, as if many locks were being unlocked. Finally, there was a clatter of a chain, and Dumbledore pushed the door open.
"Be careful, don't touch anything, and please do try to stay quiet," he said mildly. She nodded, and close the door behind them. The house smelled old and dusty, and the hall they entered was very dark. She carefully put her suitcase down, as well as the bird cage. The headmaster tapped her on the head, and the invisibility spell was lifted.
At this point, gas lamps on either side of the hall started to light themselves, casting a pale light on the walls. Dumbledore started forward, and she took up her belongings again, following him down the hallway lined with peeling green wallpaper and dark, dirty paintings.
There seemed to be a snake theme, she mused, as they passed underneath a dusty chandelier which seemed to resemble Medusa's head.
The old wizard opened the door at the end of the hallway, and they entered another room. There was a pair of old curtains covering something on the wall, and an umbrella stand that seemed to resemble – a large leg? They passed a dark staircase, which seemed to have heads mounted on the wall.
Wizards have such odd décor, she thought to herself, shivering. The headmaster lead her past a dark dining room, and lead her into the adjacent room. It appeared to be the most clean room she had seen so far. It was well lit with several red and gold lamps, which look remarkably out of place in the house.
An assortment of well worn couches were along the walls, and a jumble of picture frames sat on the mantle of an old fireplace. A stack of boxes sat in the corner, as if someone was just moving in. There was an open door, leading down to what was presumably the basement. She spotted tufts of red hair from behind the couches, talking loudly and playing some sort of game.
"Exploding Snap, I see?" Dumbledore said, eyes twinkling as he observed the game. The redheads started, and something exploded loudly. Someone swore loudly, and a girl's voice reprimanded him, scandalized.
"Professor Dumbledore! We didn't see you there," a tall, red-haired teenager said hastily. The bunch of them stood up quickly, forgetting the game. They were all wearing normal clothes, none of the robes that Kagome had seen many wearing in Diagon Alley.
"Nice to see you all," the old wizard said, smiling, "Would someone mind fetching Mrs. Weasley?"
Another redhead, a girl this time, went down the stairs to fetch the woman.
"Who's she?" asked one of the boys, looking interestedly at the Asian girl. Kagome, still confused from much of the trip, smiled hesitatingly.
"Must be the transfer student Mum was talking about yesterday," answered another. Kagome blinked. Two of them were identical. Twins?
"Right you are, Mr. Weasley. She will be staying with all of you for the summer," Dumbledore said pleasantly.
A brown-haired girl emerged from the bunch of redheads and held out her hand.
"Hello, I'm Hermione Granger. Nice to meet you," she said, shaking her hand.
"I'm Kagome Higurashi," Kagome said, smiling.
"The rest of them are related, as you can tell by their red hair. They're the Weasleys."
"Hello, I'm Fred," greeted a tall redhead.
"I'm George," said an identical boy, giving a wave.
"They're twins," said one of younger boys, "And I'm Ron."
"Are you from Japan?" inquired the brown-haired girl – Hermione, she reminded herself.
"Yes, I am."
"Which magical school did you go to in Japan? Do they teach different sorts of magic there? Are spells in Latin there too? Because here in England they are, but I think that in other countries such as –"
"Merlin, Hermione, calm down," laughed the youngest redhead, "I don't think she heard one word of that." The brown-haired girl blushed, and Kagome smiled at the girl's enthusiasm.
"Err, well, I actually haven't gone to a magical school before. I just discovered the whole Wizarding World a couple of days ago, and I don't know much about any kind of magic," Kagome said, apologetically. At this, all four of the teenagers looked at her, shocked.
"You're joking, right? You only discovered magic a couple of days ago? How old are you?" asked a fiery, red-haired girl, who had just entered the room, along with a woman who appeared to be her mother. Kagome's smile fell a bit at all the questions.
"Um, well, I'm fifteen. And no, I'm not joking. I really just found out about magic a few days ago," Kagome said, lying just a tad. She had really discovered magic about five centuries ago, but that was sure to just puzzle them further.
"Miss Higurashi is very new to the Wizarding World," the headmaster said, interjecting, " And I would appreciate it if all of you would kindly help her adjust. In the fall, she will be transferring to Hogwarts. She'll be learning magic over the summer, so she can keep up with her classes. Miss Granger, I was hoping that you would be able to help Miss Higurashi in this regard."
"Oh! Of course Professor Dumbledore," Hermione said, surprised, but extraordinarily pleased at the request from the headmaster.
"Thank you, Miss Granger," Dumbledore said, smiling, "Now, Molly, is there any room for Miss Higurashi here? Also, I need to discuss with you about tonight's meeting."
"Oh yes, of course, she can have the bedroom that we cleaned out yesterday. If you all could be dears and show her where it is..." the motherly and slightly plump woman said, waving in the direction of the door.
The red-haired girl turned around and rolled her eyes, but picked up the bird cage. The twins followed behind with the crane still perched one of their arms, and the rest of them followed suit. As soon as the door closed to the living room area, Ron scoffed.
"That was the worst attempt so far. Honestly, five people to show a girl a bedroom?"
"No offense to you or anything," Ginny said quickly, reassuring Kagome. The group climbed up the stairs, and walked down a hallway, with doors to what Kagome assumed would be bedrooms.
"Oh yeah, I didn't mean it that way. It's just that the adults keep trying to keep us out of the Order stuff," Ron said, apologizing.
"Ron!" Hermione hissed, "We don't know if she's suppose to know about the Order!" The twins laughed.
"She'll be bloody living here! Of course she knows! Dumbledore must trust her! And if she doesn't now, she'll find out later!" said one of the twins.
"But do you know about the Order?" the other twin said, interested, "Kagome, right?"
"Er, yes. To both. The headmaster told me it's a resistance group against some sort of Dark Lord? Voldemort, I believe?" Kagome said, hesitantly.
"Shhh!" said Ron, "You don't say his name! You're suppose to say You-Know-Who!"
"Err, why not?" Kagome said, puzzled. Surely, they couldn't be scared of a name?
"Oh, honestly, Ron," Hermione said, "I agree with Dumbledore. Fearing his name just gives him more power. We should all just say V-V-Voldemort." Kagome raised an eyebrow at her stutter. Yes, Naraku had been terrifying, especially to the poor villagers back in the Feudal Era, but nobody had been scared to say his mere name.
"Well, here it is!" One of the twins said, stopping at an open door. They grinned at each other, and stood on either side of the door.
"Mademoiselle, Messieurs Weasley – "
" – and Weasley,"
" – formally present to you, your chambers,"
" – to which we sincerely hope are up to your specifications." The two bowed grandly, and each took one of Kagome's hands, leading her into the room. The redhead twin on her left gave her a little twirl. Kagome laughed at their antics. The two gave another bow, while Ron rolled his eyes.
"However, ladies, we must apologize," one said, tipping his imaginary top hat.
"We must tend to our obligations," said the other.
"See you at dinner!" And with that, the two disappeared out the door.
"They're jokesters," Ginny said, explaining, "That was actually pretty normal for them. Usually they're playing pranks –"
" – like chucking Dungbombs in my room," Ron grumbled.
"But they're brilliant, really," Ginny continued, ignoring Ron, "They've been inventing joke stuff, like candies that make your tongue really large, or turn you into a bird, or makes you puke so you can get out of class."
"Tricksters, I see," Kagome said, smiling. She looked around the room, setting down the birdcage on a small desk in the corner. The bedroom was a little larger than the one she had back home in Tokyo, and painted a bland beige color. On the farthest wall was a small window that seemed to only show puffs of clouds passing by.
Ginny noticed her looking at the window.
"Oh, that's one of those enchanted windows," she explained, "You're lucky – the room Hermione and I share is near the back of the house, so we have a real window. All we get to see is what's left of the yard. This one doesn't actually show what's outside, just some picturesque scenes." Kagome nodded in thanks for the explanation.
Hermione brightened at the interesting topic, and started to ask Ginny and Ron all sorts of questions about the enchantments on the windows. Kagome didn't understand much of what they said – most of it flew over her head. She felt better when she noticed that Ron and Ginny didn't seem to understand some of it either.
As Hermione continued on – "Oh, but it's all so terribly fascinating. Would it this be classified as an inanimate transfiguration enchantment, or an inanimate transfiguration charm, or perhaps, the frame of the window is made from a magical tree species..." – Kagome started to unpack. Ginny and Hermione had made themselves comfortable on her floor, while Ron was idly spinning in the chair next to the desk.
The Japanese teenager set down her suitcase next to the closet, and took out the shrunken down items she had bought in Diagon Alley. Taking her wand out of her coat pocket, and like Shippo had instructed, she tapped the shrunken items with her wand, and watched in delight as all her books and supplies expanded to full size.
"You used magic! That's against Hogwarts rules!" Hermione said, shocked. Kagome stopped unpacking and blinked at her volume, and recalled, belatedly, a caution from the Headmaster that underaged magic was not allowed.
"Oh honestly, Hermione," Ron said, rolling his eyes, "That sort of stuff doesn't even count. Plus, this house is Unplottable."
"What do you mean? And what does that have to do anything," the brown-haired girl asked, huffily.
"What he means is that Unshrinking isn't something really magical," Ginny explained, "Anyone with a wand could do that, even a Muggle. It's built into the spell, and no magic is needed."
"Don't worry, you're not going to get into trouble or anything," Ginny added. Kagome let out a sigh of relief.
"And plus, the house is Unplottable. It just can't be detected unless you know exactly where it is. Even the Ministry can't detect magic here. We could do all the magic we want, and the Ministry wouldn't find us. The only reason we don't is because Mum would absolutely kill us. Sirius let us in on that the first day we got here, to cheer us up after all the cleaning." Hermione let out a small 'oh'. The Japanese girl nodded at the information, and turned back to unzipping her suitcase. A silence descended upon the room as Kagome unpacked many of her belongings. Ron sat idly at her desk chair, staring out the window at the clouds. The two girls on the bed seem unsure of what to say, now that the conversation had mostly ended.
"Is that a bow?" Hermione asked in surprise, breaking the silence. Kagome nodded as she took it out of her suitcase, along with the accompanying quiver of arrows. It had been rather tricky to get through airport security, but that's where Shippo's magic had come in.
"Wow, aren't those from medieval times? Can you shoot with it?" Ginny asked, looking at the elegant longbow that miko held in her hands. It was huge, and it didn't seem like something the petite Asian girl would be able to use.
"Well, yes they used them back then, and yes, I practice archery." Kagome replied. Ron looked impressed.
"Why bring it to England?" Hermione asked in a puzzled tone before she could stop herself. Why anyone would bring a weapon like that anywhere confused her. Archery wasn't much of a popular sport, and required much space. Did the girl think she would be able to practice it at Hogwarts? Ron and Ginny both nodded, waiting for the answer.
"It holds a lot of special memories, and I promised someone that I would never leave my bow behind," Kagome said softly.
The three teenagers looked at each other, confused, while Kagome carefully stored the arrows and bow on the top shelf in the closet.
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